Wiping sheets or wipes have been made from a variety of materials which can be dry or wet when used. Wipes can be moistened with a variety of suitable wiping solutions, and are then usually referred to as wet wipes. Typically, wipes have been stacked in a container in either a folded or unfolded configuration. For example, containers of wet wipes have been available wherein each of the wet wipes stacked in the container has been arranged in a folded configuration such as a c-folded, z-folded or quarter-folded configuration as are well known to those skilled in the art. Sometimes the folded wet wipes have also been interfolded with the wet wipes immediately above and below in the stack of wet wipes. In yet other configurations, the wipes have been placed in the container in the form of a continuous web of material of similarly weakened line connected sheets from the first sheet to the last which includes perforations to separate the individual wipes and which wipes can be stacked on top of each other in a fan folded manner or wound into a roll. Such wipes and wet wipes have been used for baby wipes, hand wipes, household cleaning wipes, industrial wipes and the like.
The conventional packages which contain wipes, such as those described above, have typically been designed to be positioned on a flat surface such as a countertop, changing table or the like. Such conventional packages have generally provided a plastic container, tub or package which provides a sealed environment for the sheets or wipes to ensure that they do not get contaminated by the environment surrounding the container or become overly dry in the case of wet wipes. To get the wipes into the packages, various techniques have been used. One such technique includes forming a stack of wipes on one assembly line while providing tubs from another assembly line. Then, the tubs are loaded with wipes by dropping and/or forcing the wipes down into the tubs as the wipes assembly line overlies the tub assembly line at a perpendicular T-shaped intersection. That is, there is a T-shaped intersection where the wipes assembly line is positioned above the tubs assembly line such that when the wipes get to the head of the T they are dropped/forced into the tubs below which are positioned opening side up. Next, the loaded tubs are advance away from the T-shaped intersection and further packaging is completed.
The loading of containers with such conventional techniques has not been completely satisfactory. For example, this is due at least in part to the configuration of the techniques and encountered limits on container loading rates. Such limits are believed to be caused by the orientation of the wipes and container assembly lines relative to each other, i.e., they are perpendicular to one another. Still further, for example, these limits are also believed attributed to the manner in which the wipes are loaded into the tubs, i.e., dropped/forced down into the tubs where the tubs are in an opening up orientation.